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Leurs jambes pour toutes montures, Pour tous biens l'or de leurs regards, Par le chemin des aventures Ils vont haillonneux et hagards. Le sage, indigné, les harangue ; Le sot plaint ces fous hasardeux ; Les enfants leur tirent la langue Et les filles se moquent d'eux. C'est qu'odieux et ridicules, Et maléfiques en effet, Ils ont l'air, sur les crépuscules, D'un mauvais rêve que l'on fait ; C'est que, sur leurs aigres guitares Crispant la main des libertés, Ils nasillent des chants bizarres, Nostalgiques et révoltés ; C'est enfin que dans leurs prunelles Rit et pleure — fastidieux — L'amour des choses éternelles, Des vieux morts et des anciens dieux ! — Donc, allez, vagabonds sans trêves, Errez, funestes et maudits, Le long des gouffres et des grèves, Sous l'œil fermé des paradis ! La nature à l'homme s'allie Pour châtier comme il le faut L'orgueilleuse mélancolie Qui vous fait marcher le front haut, Et, vengeant sur vous le blasphème Des vastes espoirs véhéments, Meurtrit votre front anathème Au choc rude des éléments. Les juins brûlent et les décembres Gèlent votre chair jusqu'aux os, Et la fièvre envahit vos membres Qui se déchirent aux roseaux. Tout vous repousse et tout vous navre, Et quand la mort viendra pour vous, Maigre et froide, votre cadavre Sera dédaigné par les loups !
About the headline (FAQ)
Confirmed with Paul Verlaine, Poëmes saturniens, Paris: Alphonse Lemerre, 1866, pages 40-43.
Authorship:
- by Paul Verlaine (1844 - 1896), "Grotesques", appears in Poèmes saturniens, in 2. Eaux-fortes, no. 5, Paris, Alphonse Lemerre, first published 1866 [author's text checked 2 times against a primary source]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Mathieu Crickboom (1871 - 1947), "Les Grotesques", op. 12 (Dix Mélodies pour chant et piano) no. 10 (1908) [ voice and piano ] [sung text checked 1 time]
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- ENG English (Peter Low) , copyright © 2021, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- ENG English (Bergen Weeks Applegate) , "Grotesques", appears in Poems Saturnine, in 2. Etchings, no. 5
Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Poom Andrew Pipatjarasgit [Guest Editor]
This text was added to the website: 2009-01-05
Line count: 40
Word count: 221
With only their legs to carry them, no goods but the gold of their gaze, along the path of adventure, they walk looking wild and tattered. The wise man, angered, harangues them; the idiot pities these dubious fools, the children poke out their tongues and the girls make fun of them. That's because they're odious and laughable, and indeed malevolent, and they seem, in the hours of twilight, to be somebody's bad dream. It's because, on their shrill guitars tensing their freedom-loving hands, they drone out chants that are weird, nostalgic and rebellious. And because deep in their eyes there laughs and weeps - tiresomely - the love of eternal things, of men long dead and of the ancient gods! - So off you go, unceasing vagabonds, wander, tragic and accursed, along the ravines and the beaches under the closed eyes of paradises! Nature joins with man to punish in appropriate ways the arrogant melancholy that makes you walk tall, and, avenging on you the blasphemy of your vast and vehement hopes, bruises your doomed foreheads with the rude shock of the elements. Junes burn and Decembers freeze your flesh to the bones, and fevers invade your limbs, which are torn by the reeds where you walk. Everything repels, everything saddens you and when death comes, skinny and cold, to take you, your corpses then will be scorned by the wolves!
About the headline (FAQ)
Translations of titles
"Grotesques = "Grotesque vagabonds"
"Les Grotesques" = "The grotesque vagabonds"
Authorship:
- Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2021 by Peter Low, (re)printed on this website with kind permission. To reprint and distribute this author's work for concert programs, CD booklets, etc., you may ask the copyright-holder(s) directly or ask us; we are authorized to grant permission on their behalf. Please provide the translator's name when contacting us.
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Based on:
- a text in French (Français) by Paul Verlaine (1844 - 1896), "Grotesques", appears in Poèmes saturniens, in 2. Eaux-fortes, no. 5, Paris, Alphonse Lemerre, first published 1866
This text was added to the website: 2021-11-24
Line count: 40
Word count: 231